Sen. Ted Cruz won the Texas primary on Tuesday, scooping up dozens of delegates and securing his place as the only GOP candidate thus far to beat front-runner Donald Trump in any state in the race to secure the Republican nomination.
The press called Cruz’s win shortly after the polls closed at 9 p.m. Cruz’s expected victory marks the second time he has bested Trump, after winning the party’s first contest, the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.
Five GOP candidates competed in a dozen contests in what is known as Super Tuesday, but the Texas primary was considered the crown jewel, a state where 155 delegates will be awarded proportionally.
Cruz, who represents Texas in the U.S. Senate as an outsider who clashes with the GOP leadership, is expected to clean up in the Lone Star state by winning the most votes statewide and the majority in many congressional districts.
The win secures his place as second in the delegate count behind Trump, who was expected to place second in the Texas primary but won many of the other contests.
But Cruz’s path forward in the nominating process remains murky. Cruz performed poorly in Virginia, and Trump beat him by 20 percent among evangelical voters. Cruz was beaten handily by fellow Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who outperformed in Virginia polls and came in second.
Cruz’s weak performance outside his home state and neighboring states will make it very difficult for him to secure the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
Cruz heads next to another neighboring state, Kansas, where he’ll try again to win over evangelicals and conservatives in the March 5 caucuses there.
Cruz has served in the Senate since 2013 and is known to have few friends there after speaking out against Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in floor speeches and holding up votes on key legislation in order to make his case on repealing Obamacare, defunding Planned Parenthood, and other top conservative issues.
It’s the main reason many House and Senate have lawmakers refused to back Cruz and are instead rallying around Rubio, another freshman senator who like Cruz ran on a Tea Party platform but has not bucked the GOP leadership.
In January, pollsters told Senate and House Republicans that a Cruz-led GOP ticket would hurt the GOP congressional elections.
